To improve the shooting and pursuit skills of aircraft pilots, various types of targets have been developed which are towed behind a towing aircraft. Some of the earlier target constructions included elongated fabric panels or sleeves. These targets were attached to a bridle assembly which, in turn, was attached to a long cable secured to a towing aircraft. These banner and sleeve targets were often placed in flight by dragging both the target and at least a portion of the tow cable off of a runway. Scoring was accomplished by counting the number of holes created by bullets passing through the target. Scoring was highly competitive among aircraft pilots and, to distinguish one pilot from another, different color pigments were used to coat the bullets.
With the development of higher speed aircraft, the cloth banner and sleeve targets proved unsuitable as they rapidly deteriorated upon reaching the speeds achievable with the higher speed aircraft. To overcome this problem the art relied more heavily on solid body targets which could be designed to handle the higher speeds. However, the solid body targets (e.g., fiberglass covering a wooden or metallic framework) rapidly deteriorated after being hit a few times by pursuing aircraft bullets and thus were unsuitable for reuse. This problem remained despite the development of more sophisticated scoring indicators such as those using acoustic, radar, optical or radiation to monitor the passage of bullets through the target areas. Such scoring systems allowed for the creation of a scoring field about the trailing device (thus the nomenclature visual augmenter), but pilots would inevitably hit the trailing device while shooting for the field surrounding the visual augmenter.
To overcome the problems associated with solid body trailing devices, there has been developed in the art visual augmenters capable of flying with higher speed aircraft. Examples of high speed visual augmenters can be found in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 07/343,438 (filed Apr. 26, 1989) and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 07/536,112 (filed June 8, 1990) which is a continuation-in-part of the above application. Both the above-noted applications are incorporated herein by reference.
An advantage of visual augmenters like those described in the above noted applications is that they are capable of numerous runs as that they are not prone to deteriorating at high speeds and are not rapidly deteriorated by projectile hits. Moreover, such visual augmenters are highly compactable, especially those embodiments described in the above two noted patent applications since the forward portion of the augmenter comprises a flexible and readily foldable vented inflator. Hence the prior art problems associated with dragging targets off a runway (e.g., difficult pre-flight set up, friction deterioration, snagging, safety problems) are avoided.
The high cost involved with target practice sorties, however, necessitates that in flight deployment of stowed visual augmenters occur rapidly and without complications. Problems experienced with the prior art devices utilizing stowed targets or stowed augmenters (e.g. U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,184,681; 4,205,848; 2,777,696) include non-release of the augmenter (target) at the appropriate time (if at all), partial release of the support structure or augmenter (target), tangling of bridle or tow lines, breakage of tow or bridle lines (e.g., burn through with exhaust), and failure of components due to the high forces which develop during and following deployment.
It is also very important that release of the target properly take place at the designated time as a release failure leaves the pilot in the precarious situation of attempting to land with the dangling augmenter (target). On the other hand, prior art attempts to avoid this problem have resulted in releasing devices which work prematurely.
A further problem which has plagued the art is the destruction of the costly electronic scoring equipment due to misfires hitting in the storage area of the scoring equipment (e.g., RF sensor). For the prior art devices which release the scoring equipment together with the augmenter an additional problem lies in the destruction of the equipment on ground impact.
An additional problem experienced in the art has been cable breakage. Prior art attempts to avoid tow line breakage include providing high factors of safety through thickened cables. An increase in tow cable thickness, however, leads to undesirable fuel consumption brought on by the added weight and drag of the cable. The high speed aircraft travelling at speeds in excess of 450 KNTS place extremely high tensile stresses on the cable which often extends more than 2000 ft behind the aircraft. Even higher tensile stresses are placed on the cable due to transient forces which develop in flight. For example, when the solid components of the target are hit by projectiles the target shifts side-to-side or front-to-back so as to cause a snapping or whipping of the cable and a large increase in stress on the cable. An increase in cable stress is also caused by the maneuvering of the towing plane and environmental conditions (wind shear, pressure pockets).
Rapid field replacement or repair in the field is also a requirement in the art as often only a limited number of target systems are available for use within a predesignated flight schedule. Typical prior art systems fail to provide such replacement or repair versatility, especially in the repair and replacement of the sensitive electronic components.